In TİD, a new sign may be derived from another sign simply by mimicking the arbitrary similarity between two words in Turkish. This is a marginal type of borrowing that involves a derivational process based on iconic etymology. Here, two orthographically similar words in Turkish form the basis for the creation of a new sign in TİD, derived from an existing sign. For example, the words for ‘punishment’ and ‘Algeria’ are ceza and Cezayir, respectively, in Turkish. This similarity has carried over to TİD where the sign algeria is based on a modification of the sign punishment.
algeria (Turkish: Cezayir) </ punishment (Turkish: ceza)
The same process is observed in other pairs, exemplified below:
strength (Turkish: kuvvet) kuwait (Turkish: Kuveyt)
The first example, the sign for ‘strength’ has an iconic component that mimics a strong person. This iconicity is carried over to the sign for kuwait, the country, which is unrelated to physical strength. The iconicity is carried over simply because the two words in Turkish, kuvvet and Kuveyt are orthographically similar.
Another example is the word yüz in Turkish, which can mean ‘face’ or ‘(one) hundred’. The form for ‘(one) hundred’ in TİD is the index finger traversing the face, and this is possibly based on the fact that these concepts are expressed by two homophonous words in Turkish.
face (Turkish: yüz) hundred (Turkish: yüz)